New Approach to Election Coverage Wins Fans

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DURING the 1994 elections, a sprinkling of newspapers across the country will follow the unconventional path the Charlotte Observer took two years ago.

The North Carolina newspaper launched "Your Vote in '92," an initiative that abandoned the horse-race approach to election coverage and let voters set the agenda on issues that they said mattered to them. Five hundred readers served on a committee to help the paper pinpoint citizens' concerns. Readers' questions were put to the candidates. When candidates refused to clarify where they stood on issues, the paper ran large white spaces next to their names. The candidates then decided they did, after all, …